news we're following, today's pushback to president obama's emotional call for restrictions on gun ownership. last night's cheers and even tears unintended consequences of government overreach. what's going on, chief -- our cnn national political correspondent jim acosta is here. you've been looking at the reaction since the speech. what's going on? >> wolf, this was a big moment last night. it may be moving votes. what was widely seen as an emotional high point, it may have also been a turn turning point in the debate over gun control. it was a moment carefully orchestrated for maximum emotional impact. as former congresswoman gabby giffords, the parents of slain teenager hideya pendleton and other victims of gun violence looked on, president obama called for a vote. >> they deserve a vote. gabby giffords deserves a vote. the families of newtown deserve a vote. the families of aurora deserve a vote. >> one day later there are indications on capitol hill that the president may get it. >> we don't need a cheer leader. >> even as mr. obama's top republican critics, senator lindsey gr

obama and that in the end if they continue this, they will look petty, as one source put it. >> and i just want to be precise, dana bash, this vote is still continuing. we don't know if the vote has failed or succeeded or what's going on. but we assume that there aren't -- what you're hearing is that there aren't probably five republicans who will join 55 democrats in breaking this filibuster? >> reporter: that's right. going in, the democrats did not think that they had the 60 votes and we could only potentially find three republicans who were going to agree to stop this filibuster but we probably will see this any minute. the vote is technically over but sometimes they have to wait for senators to come in to cast their votes. one thing i will say, though, is we were talking about the fact that probably hagel will be confirmed after the senators come back from a week-long recess. at this point i'm a little bit gun-shy. i wouldn't even take that to the bank and the reason is because we've seen this before. i had several republican senators say to me, point blank today, that they will

home sexuality, on the male only priesthood. they supported obama's health care plan when the church spoke out against it. these nuns ended up being reprimanded. the nuns got a lot of support within the united states for their actions. it was controversial for the pope. he was also prompted to do that by some pressure from conservative religious figures in the united states. so that ended up being one of the more controversial moments of his papacy and it had to do of course with quite a few popular american nuns here in the united states. >> brian todd, thanks very much. and later here in "the situation room," i'll speak with cardinal theodore mccarrick. he is in rome right now and he's got some unique perspectives on what's going on. also bishop o'connell, former president the catholic university of america. much more on this story coming up. let's get some more, though, right now on pope benedict 16. he was born joseph ratzinger in germany. he became a cardinal in 1977. he was chief theological adviser to pope john paul ii. he was elected pope in 2005. he was then 78 years old. th